Anxiety in Teens

Anxiety in Teens

Anxiety in Teens
While anxiety is certainly a normal psychological reaction to stress and can, in a small and healthy amount, even help people to perform important tasks, too much causes problems in day to day life. Anxiety in teens is often brushed off as ordinary adolescent drama. However, it can be a sign of an anxiety disorder.

How Much is Too Much?
It’s true that all teenagers experience anxiety. Their lives are no less important or emotion-filled than adults, and they struggle with similar worries. When it begins interfering with a teen’s daily life, parents or caregivers should be on the lookout for an anxiety disorder.

Some teens find anxiety beyond the occasional case of sweats. A study by the National Institute of Mental Health has found that approximately one-quarter of children between 13 and 18 years of age have a diagnosable disorder. One in 17 has been found to suffer from a severe anxiety disorder. Those are not numbers to ignore, and should have parents wondering, “Where is a doctor for teens near me?”

Growing Pains
Teenagers go through a great variety of changes, both physical and emotional. It’s common to overlook anxiety disorders among these changes. The symptoms that most often point to a disorder are all too often attributed to hormonal changes. There are some telltale signs that are important to look out for.

One red flag is a teen who constantly feels on edge or irritable, restless, and experiences unexplained outbursts. Difficulty concentrating when the individual hasn’t typically had troubles before might point to an anxiety problem developing.

Social changes can be a concern. Keep an eye out for avoidance of their usual social interactions with known friends, cutting off of extracurricular activities, and spending increased time in isolation.

Anxiety can cause changes in a teen’s physical wellness that may bring with them the need of a doctor for teens in Lubbock. While the occasional headache might not be cause for concern, frequent headaches or migraines cropping up are. Unexplained bodily aches and pains, stomach complaints, and fatigue can be symptoms of an anxiety disorder. Changes in a teen’s eating habits severe enough to cause excessive weight loss or gain are often a sign. General complaints of feeling unwell or uneasy without an obvious cause should not be brushed off.

Disturbances in a teen’s sleeping patterns often turn up with an overabundance of anxiety, including sleeping too much and remaining tired even after a full night’s rest, sleeping too little, and having nightmares. Anxiety disorders often create problems with a teen’s schoolwork, whether caused by their performance suffering or missing classes entirely. Watch out for falling grades, reports of missed assignments or exams, and feelings of being overwhelmed.

Panic Attacks and Anxiety Attacks
While not all anxiety disorders cause panic attacks or anxiety attacks, they are extremely common. Keep in mind that there is a difference between them. Anxiety attacks can build slowly, lasting days, while panic attacks tend to strike suddenly.

Symptoms of each can include rapid or pounding heartbeat, dizziness, difficulty breathing, and chest pain. It is common for someone having an attack to experience feelings that nothing is real, concern that they are dying or “going crazy.” Sweating, trembling, and numbness or tingling in the extremities are common. Diarrhea and vomiting with no physical illness present can be symptoms, as well.

Teens suspected to be struggling with an anxiety disorder often won’t ask for help. It is up to parents and caregivers to pay attention and get help in the form of an appointment with a pediatrician in Lubbock, preferably one specializing in kids and teens pediatric mental health. Anxiety disorders are highly treatable, and the sooner treatment is sought, the better.

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